Get Email Updates

The Dispatch E-Edition

All current subscribers have full access to Digital D, which includes the E-Edition and
unlimited premium content on Dispatch.com, BuckeyeXtra.com, BlueJacketsXtra.com and
DispatchPolitics.com.
Subscribe
today!

But as commanders used to say, if the Army wanted its soldiers to have portraits of mothers,
names of girlfriends or drawings of Mickey Mouse on their exposed skin, it would issue them.

Until now, it has tolerated tattoos, if they weren’t obscene, extremist, racist or gang-related,
banning only those on the head, neck and face. Enforcement of the policy has varied, slackening at
the height of the war in Iraq when the Army needed more soldiers.

With that war over and cuts in troop strength expected as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan
next year, Sgt. Maj. Raymond Chandler said last month that a new, stricter policy is in the works
and could take effect in 30 to 60 days.

Current soldiers who have tattoos that violate the new regulations would be “grandfathered” in,
but new recruits would have to remove skin art on extremities before they would be allowed to
join.

The changes have created an uptick in business at some of the two dozen or so tattoo shops in
Fayetteville whose customers include soldiers at Fort Bragg.

James “Vinny” Vinson, who manages Ink Well, said he’s seen a lot of soldiers coming in to get
new tattoos while they still can.

He’s also had an increase in tattoo removals, nearly all of them among young, aspiring
soldiers.

“I just got this a couple of months ago,” said Travaris Brinson, 26, whose tattoo of his baby
daughter’s name will cost $100 to get taken off.